Kumbh preparation: Tourism dept to upgrade service providers

Devotees can expect tourist-friendly drivers, soft-spoken local guides and pleasant dhaba-wallahs during the Kumbh Mela next year.

Devotees can expect tourist-friendly drivers, soft-spoken local guides and pleasant dhaba-wallahs during the Kumbh Mela next year.

UP Tourism has entrusted Manyawar Kanshiram Institute of Tourism Management, Lucknow with the responsibility of training service providers on etiquettes, manners, hygiene and first aid ahead of the big event beginning from January 14, 2013.

Some 7 crore devotees will be thronging the Kumbh area. To make their journey and experience pleasant, UP Tourism — with financial support from central government — has started two different sets of programmes to upgrade service providers through the Capacity Building of Service Providers (CBSP) and Hunar Se Rozgar Tak (HSRT) schemes.

The CBSP will impart training in manners and etiquettes, hygiene and first aid to drivers, security personnel, local guides, coolies and vendors, shopkeepers, dhaba wallahs, drivers, etc. This will be a four-day capsule which will cater to 2,700 people.

On the other hand, Hunar Se Rozgar Tak is a programme aimed at creating skilled man power in cookery, waitering, housekeeping, security guards and driving. More than 1,600 people would be trained in these skills. Uttar Pradesh is launching programmes for driving skills and security guards for the first time. HSRT is a programme ranging from 6 to 8 weeks and those who fall in the age group of 18-28 are eligible for this training. Emphasis will be on people belonging to BPL. While the CBSP programme would be launched on September 25 in Allahabad, the HSRT scheme will be launched across the State from October 1, said Prof Manoj Dixit, director of the institute. Applications for the training programme would be available from Monday.